Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-10-17
- Pathfinder Bestiary PDF to be $9.99 like core rulebook (hat tip: Jim)
- The Rouse is leaving WotC. (via @AsmodeusLore)
- You Too Could… Date Keith Baker!
- Are you ready…for STAR WARS ZOMBIE WEEK? (via @joshgeeksix and @AronHead)
- Chris Perkins’ home campaign looks bad ass. (via @newbiedm)
- Wil Wheaton on RinCon, delves, 4e, Castle Panic, A Penny For My Thoughts, James Ernest on drums, and more
- Review: Brutal Legend
- Memories of the Future Volume One is now available!
- New Post on Penny Arcade “all about my D&D game”
Draconis Day#1: Swords & Wizardry
Sorry I couldn’t manage to do 5 Capsule Review, Con prep took a little longer than expected.
Last night’s game of S&W was as awesome, hilarious and fun as I expected it to be. I ran Chgowiz’s exceedingly well designed adventure from the Quick-Start kit. Instead of giving you the play by play, I’ll repost the Twitter accounts of two of the players.
In usual Twitter fashion, please start at the bottom 
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis Yes thanks to @ChattyDM for a Fan-Frikkin-Tastic old school beer & pretzels Swords & Wizardry game filled with action & hilarity
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis heading home after a good games with @ ChattyDM
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis our hirelings work as a team. But, if you spell team backwards it’s MEAT @ChattyDM ‘s game
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis Halfling clutching chest “mine mine you can’t have it cause … ahh it’s a trap” … yah that’s the ticket @ChattyDM ‘s game
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis motto: Toast a Halfling get a treasure : )
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis my dwarf finally goes down felled by skellies. Bury him with honor in and an Ale Keg @ChattyDM ‘s S&W Game
- clumsycrusader: #Draconis the map so far @ChattyDM ‘s S&W Game http://twitpic.com/ltfm5
- clumsycrusader: #Draconis @spakman is killed by a giant spider & the priest gives the spider last rights … oh and the figther
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis obligatory brave sir Robin quote has been uttered. God this dungeon is lousy with frikken halflings… Just when one kills it’s self
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis wierd old wererat hermit & now Godzilla sized ants aaahhhh! @ChattyDM ‘s game
- clumsycrusader: #Draconis we just retrieved gems from the back of a statue St. Doobie of the surf whoa man! @ChattyDM
-
clumsycrusader: #Draconis PMD your doing it wrong @ChattyDM ‘s S&W game
-
clumsycrusader: The shaman wants me to kill @spakman ‘s character, o think it’s a good idea #Draconis
- I’ve been charmed by the gobo shaman #Draconis
- clumsycrusader: #draconis Ended up tossing halfling across room. 1/2 ling is now dead
-
spakman: http://twitpic.com/lszhr – The first round of combat went poorly for the halfling #draconis
-
Swung halfling by the ankles at the gob’s & missed #Draconis
-
We’ve encountered goblins #Draconis http://twitpic.com/lsxsz @ChattyDM ‘s game
-
Aaahhh! Goblins! #draconis
-
clumsycrusader: Rolled up a Dwarven figthing man in @ChattyDM ‘s Sword & Wizardry Game #Draconis
- spakman: Just rolled a 2 hp fighter… I have a spare character sheet standing by
#draconis
- Sitting round the table shooting the breeze waiting for go time. I decided on @chattydm s swords & wizardry game #draconis
There you have it, a crazy fun game… even though I ended up killing 7 PCs over 6 players.
As my youngest player would have said: “Shiny!”
Expect something similar for today’s 4e game.
See you all later, I’m leaving my laptop at home so I can focus on playing… may sneak in iTouch to follow comments and Twitter feeds.
Leveling Up As An Inexperienced DM
I still consider myself an inexperienced DM. The 4th Edition campaign that I’m currently running has just passed twenty adventures and is the longest campaign I’ve ever run. Hell, it was the longest game I’ve ever run when it hit ten adventures back in May.
Years ago, while still in high school, we had a regular gaming group that got together every Saturday to hang out and play games. As a result we went through many different tabletop RPGs run by various people, and somewhere in there I ran a World of Darkness game that was probably horrendously bad. It coined several inside jokes with our group, the most popular of which was the existence of square werewolves who can take up an entire elevator all on their own. At least one of the adventures went really well, but the game was short lived at only 4 or 5 adventures and that was probably a good thing. After this I attempted to run another short-lived World of Darkness game, the concept of combining the Vampire, Mage, and Werewolf game rules was very appealing to me but was honestly too large of an undertaking for me at the time, especially being a rookie GM.
It wasn’t until college that I had any excuse to run my own D&D game. Dave’s campaigns were always the staple of our gaming and when he went to college we had two years where we played games other than D&D or a continuation of Dave’s campaign world that our friend The O ran. It happened that in the first few months of college I found myself with one experienced D&D player (my future wife) and three or four new players that were really excited to play their first game of D&D. I can’t remember exactly what went through my head while preparing my first D&D campaign back in the spring of 2002, but the general concept I held onto was that the party would be following in the footsteps of an old group of heroes that had adventured years before them. I ran this first game for five or six adventures, all of which were pretty good quality from what I remember, but the game fizzled out due to college scheduling and impending breaks. What I ended up with from this first game was quite surprising: I had actually created a world with a very detailed back story that had just as much content to it as the adventures the PCs had gone through and experienced. I essentially found myself with twice the amount of content that I’d actually used in game. [Read the rest of this article]
Statement from Wizards of the Coast Regarding Fansite Toolkit
Months back, Wizards of the Coast released their “Fansite Toolkit“, essentially a package of images for D&D that could be used for bloggers and similar in exchange for agreeing to, well, a lot of terms about citations, trademarks, and usage.
The release raised a lot of questions among the potential audience for it (bloggers) and so we emailed Wizards of the Coast to get some clarification. They provided us two short answers, which don’t cover everything, but do provide some information. [Read the rest of this article]
Capsule Review Week: Dominion
Let’s continue our week of mini reviews now shall we?
Dominion
What it is.
Dominion is a non-collectible constructable card game where each player plays the part of an ambitious minor noble who aims at turning its modest estate into a dominion of provinces and duchies. Players play cards from their decks to generate enough wealth to purchase new cards, some of which are victory cards needed to win the game. The game is very fast paced and lasts about 40 to 50 minutes each. The player with the highest point total of ‘territory’ cards (useless at any other point during the game) in his deck wins. The game also features a set of 25 different action/attack cards, 10 of which are in any given game, making each game very different from one another.
What I like about this game
Absolutely everything! It’s exceedingly clever and has a very low learning curve. Everyone I’ve showed the game to, from my non-gamer wife to my 7 year old son, have caught on and loved it within minutes. However, the Magic player in me is downright gleeful to see that the game is based on established CCG concepts such as resource/action balance, card synergies and sweet sweet inevitability (the point where you can no longer lose a game). The fact that everyone starts with the same deck evens out the elements of initial chances and focuses the game on good decision making.
What I dislike about the game.
I’d be hard pressed to say anything negative about the game so far, even the box was designed so that you would never have to sort the cards ever (I dropped it, while closed, on the floor and the cards were still sorted). I would say that the game is designed such that when you aren’t going to win, you really know it and there’s little you can do about it. That can dampen the fun, but it’s usually always related to sub-optimal decisions in adding cards to your deck, it gets better with experience. The game also has limited player interaction. There are some attack cards that will affect all opponents’ card draws, hand sizes and victory points, but mostly you only have to focus on building the best deck to generate maximum income at every turns.
So if you haven’t tried it, go to your game store and ask for a Demo, I guarantee you’ll love it!
Inq. of the Week: Gaming Women
Gaming genres were the topic last week, and not altogether unexpectedly, fantasy came out on top, with 95% of voters saying it’s what they enjoyed. Second place, with science fiction, took 72% of the vote, which says I need to get in more Traveller or Starblazer Adventures to experience more. Modern and Horror were close for the third, but far behind the top two.
We started soliciting Inquisition ideas via our fancy new Facebook page, and one of the first suggestions was an interesting one that has come up recently, about women in gaming. (The fact that the suggestion came from someone I live with was only part of the decision to ask it.)
Conventional wisdom and surveys show that women are in the minority among gaming groups of all kinds, but I think the ratio is starting to shift. (Among game designers too!) We touched on the issue almost three years ago (to a bit of controversy) but I’d like to pose a slightly less loaded question:
Loading ...Define “primary gaming group” however feels best to you, and it’s not limited to RPG groups or tabletop groups. I’m interested in hearing your experiences, especially since ever since college my groups have been pretty mixed as far as genders go.
Capsule Review Week: Swords & Wizardry
As introduced here, I will post mini-reviews of RPGs and MMORPGs during the whole week while I prepare for Draconis, my local gaming convention.
Swords & Wizardry
What it is
A clone of the original, 1974 version of Dungeons & Dragons (often referred to as 0th edition). It includes all the non-proprietary elements of the three original D&D booklets and selected material from the supplements. It is a self-contained fully playable game whose re-write make it easily understandable and more usable than the original game. It includes full character generation rules (5 classes, 3 races), equipment, cleric and wizard spells and full bestiary. Along with the Quick Start Rules, the game offers a completely free way to play an old school game within minutes.
What I liked about it
Considering that I’m a new schooler with reservations about some elements of older editions of D&D (mainly 1 and 2e), I’m surprised that so little about S&W’s rules bugged me. At its roots, it is a very simple, very rules light game with colossal potential for fast and furious fun. The game also begs for customization, it is so bare bones (yet playable) that you almost automatically start making house rules as you play. All in all, it brings back in full force some elements that newer versions of D&D put less focus on like exploration, experimenting with unknown elements (without skills) and dungeon wide strategy during combat. I love this game and I will play this with my kids before I teach them 4e.
What I disliked about it
In spite of the excellent re-write, some small elements are still missing like combat stats for fighting hirelings. This is mostly minor stuff. One aspect that bugs my new schooler sensibilities is the preachy tone that the book takes whenever it extols the virtues of Old School gaming. While I understand the necessities of ‘converting the unbelievers’ for a first generation retro-clone (you work it out) sometimes it just grates on my nerves. I didn’t want to be told again and again that I didn’t need many rules or that I don’t need skills or that this game is different from newer versions. The game sells itself on it’s simplicity and very enthusiastic following, the sermons aren’t necessary. I’d recommend a second edition with a different editorial voice, one that extols what can be done with the system over how different from it’s current “predecessors”.
What it boils down to…
I bought four copies of the game book on Lulu and I play it occasionally with my 4e friends, ’nuff said.
You can find links to download or buy Swords & Wizardry here. I also strongly suggest the excellent Quick-Start Rules which you can find here.
Capsule Review Week: Intro and DDO Eberron unlimited
I’ll be spending most of the coming week preparing for Montreal’s Draconis gaming convention (where I’ll host a Dungeon Reality Show game, 2 Swords and Wizardry games and both a French and English Seminar on DMing 4e).
While I initially thought I’d take the week off from Blogging, my evil backstabbing mastermind lieutenant PM mentioned that I could, you know, write short posts instead.
…
The implication of such a suggestions were just too staggering for my fragile little mind and I must have blanked out for some time…
When I eventually recovered, my bruised mind had settled on a compromise. It decided that I would post a 3 paragraphs review per day for the whole week and would participate actively in the comments whenever I could manage, answering questions and such.
For the purpose of these reviews, the three paragraphs are going to be:
- A neutral description of what the product is
- What I liked about the Product
- What I disliked about the Product
Followed by a one sentence conclusion.
Here are the products I intend to review this week:
- Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Eberron Online Unlimited
- Cryptic’s Champions Online
- Rio Grande Games’ Dominion
- Mythmere Games’ Swords & Wizardry
- Archaia’s Mouse Guard
Also note that I have purchased (except DDO) each of those games. So let’s get started!
Dungeons and Dragons Online Ebberon Unlimited
What it is
This PC game is a reboot of Turbine’s DDO Stormreach relaunched as a freemium MMORPG. The game chronicles the exploits of groups of adventurers in and around the Eberron city of Stormreach. While the core game remains free, users are invited to purchase additional content (new classes, races, instances) and items (magic items, buffs, cosmetic upgrades). Subscription is available but it mostly gives you X credits per months to buy store elements. The game features a new tutorial zone designed for easier group play. played the original version for a while and downloaded the new version to play with my son without having to pay for 2 accounts.
What I liked about it
I liked how it brings the D&D (3.5) brand to life, Giant Spiders are BIG, Ogres look like they do in the Monster Manual and they hit HARD. Game play is fast and the interface can be mastered relatively easily. It is by far the BEST dungeon crawling experience I’ve seen in a MMORPGs and playing with buddies over voice chat can be really fun. You get a lot of game for the amount you paid (i.e. 0$) and that’s hard to beat
What I didn’t like.
The game is seriously flawed in lot of things. The one issue that made me quit in disgust was instances within instances in the early game. If you happen to die in the nested instance before you discovered the first resurrection shrine, you have to run through the city (again), then through the first instance (with full re-spawns), then the second… alone. Other annoyance: brittle equipment and equipment busting monsters, minuscule equipment icons, treasure behind locked doors (here buy a key in the store!) and too many of the same freaking monsters. I have better things to do with my evenings.
What it boils down to
It’s a great way of playing D&D online with friends and for free but as a MMORPG, it ignores many lessons that Wow has fixed a long time ago.
You can download the game here.
There you go! If you have specific questions about the early game, let me know, I’ll happily answer them as soon as I can find a few moments.
Champions Online: Being 13 Forever
Oh yeah, like some others, I succumbed to to the Champions Online bug. I’ll post a short review later this week but in the meantime I had to share a few screenshots of my latest PC, the 4th I made so far. And I confess that I really am nothing more than a 13 year old boy with a closet full of Image Comics from the early 90′s
Meet… Front Loaded! (Insert adolescent laugh) She’s a redeemed Master (or is it Mistress he he he) of the Infernal Path of the Demonic Twin Cannons.
(Sigh)
But enough about fluff… let her action speak for themselves!
I kill you dead sucka!
So yeah, she’s Lara Croft meets Equilibrium, with big red plastic buttons!
Oh and here she is, posing with Millennium City Mayor Calvin Biselle and some random Canadian guy in the back.
I love this game… and I love being 13!
Critical Bits for the week ending 2009-10-10
- Just updated the Character Class Reference w/ Seeker (Primal Controller)
- Just updated the Character Race Reference w/ Vistani (from Ravenloft!)
- Coming Soon: The Anarchist Gamemaster Cookbook: Recipes For Games That Don’t Suck by Sinister Adventures
- Guide to 4e Accessories updated with i4e iPhone app and Litko 4e Tokens
- Seeker Class Preview: Primal Controller (ddi sub required)
- Wil Wheaton’s 2009 Dwarven Dungeon Delve of Doom! Benefiting the Child’s Play Charity
- Rock Band coming to iPhone
- Review: Planetary #27 (minor spoilers)
- Compendium Monster Search for iPhones. (via Jonathan Drain)
